Obviously no surprise at #1 and #2. LAX beat DFW largely on DL/XE adds, and seasonal summer additions effective beginning of July. Also, DFW affected by weather during 1st half of July. DEN will be interesting to watch - continued F9 and WN schedule adds; Ramp up of Lynx operations - may be vying for #4 spot by this time next year. LAS' growth in ops beginning to flatten a bit with US scale back. Still up year-over-year though. Surprising to find that PHX still has local gen. av. (i.e. 'touch-and-gos') operations. CLT and PHL both benefitting from US.

Not listed at #11, JFK, which logged better than 40,000 ops during the month. It continues its torrid year-over-year growth as AA, B6 and DL battle.

The only LAX stat line a bit skewy is the 'military ops' stat line, with an average of about 10.5 movements p/day during the month.

LAX has had a good deal of "permanent' rather than 'seasonal' frequency growth this year. It appears that the bulk of the DL/XE adds will stick, at least short term. Considering the aggressiveness with which DL/XE is scheduling LAX, even those markets that do fail will likely be quickly usurped by new markets.

VA's entry will facilitate additional movement growth. On the international front, MX added frequency at the beginning of the year. And, some of what historically had been summer seasonal adds for other carriers will stick for the winter schedule.

Yet, LAX is still approximately 10% below its peak ops years of 2000 through summer, 2001.

Simply a battle royale among AA, B6, and DL that will, barring the unforseen, last through 2008. Of course, JFK is choking on its success as a focus for multiple carriers. The runway configuration, coupled with sharp spikes in peak period scheduling activity during the evening, has become problematic at JFK.

Simply a battle royale among AA, B6, and DL that will, barring the unforseen, last through 2008. Of course, JFK is choking on its success as a focus for multiple carriers. The runway configuration, coupled with sharp peak period activity during the evening, has become problematic at JFK.

Wow, almost 9 and a half more flights per hour (assuming a 17 hour ops day) average at JFK, no wonder the delays are getting worse... anyone know the numbers for LGA and EWR? or a link where I can find them? I'm curious what the Y-O-Y increase is for the NY airspace as a whole...

Quoting Bond007 (Reply 8):Well, "air taxi" would be Part 135, and GA would also include Part 91 I presume. So biz/corporate are split between them. GA is not just light aircraft in this context

This is indeed correct which causes me to edit my previous answer. First, an "air taxi" is 60 seats or less (edit: keystroke), OR, or a maximum payload capacity of 18,000.pounds or less carrying passengers or cargo for hire or compensation . (edit: emphasis to elaborate on your point.)

Quoting DeltaAVL (Reply 1):I was very surprised to see CLT beating out PHL this time around. PHL just seems like a bigger, busier airport to me.

Quoting Usairways85 (Reply 10):US has over 100 more flts at CLT than PHL. Even with a strong WN presence at PHL, they end up about the same.

Yes, I think it's all perception. Whenever I quote CLT figures, I get the same response. The difference is that PHL is often in the news because of delays, and CLT rarely ... so folks think PHL is this big, busy, airport, on the East Coast, and CLT in the Carolinas .. how can it be THAT busy!

Quoting Usairways85 (Reply 10):US has over 100 more flts at CLT than PHL. Even with a strong WN presence at PHL, they end up about the same. I don't know what the figures have been in the past

Quoting Bond007 (Reply 11):Yes, I think it's all perception. Whenever I quote CLT figures, I get the same response. The difference is that PHL is often in the news because of delays, and CLT rarely ... so folks think PHL is this big, busy, airport, on the East Coast, and CLT in the Carolinas .. how can it be THAT busy!

Regarding CLT and PHL. Although the annual "aircraft movements" are close, the airports themselves have very different characteristics.

CLT is heavily supported by connecting traffic via US. in fact for the 12 month period ending March 2007, of all domestic flying, only 27% of passengers originated at or had CLT as their final destination. PHL's same statistic is 67%. Consequently, approximately 73% of all arriving/departing passengers at CLT never set foot outside of the airport. This does not include the annual international (less U.S. Caribbean) airport originating/departing passengers, which is 4.9M for PHL (heavily Europe) and 1.8M for CLT (heavily Caribbean).

The officially reported US Airways passenger percentages is 66.43% for CLT and 46.4% for PHL (US) & 12.6% (WN) - this includes supporting US Commuter services. A very different situation for PHL. It becomes very obvious which airport is a "destination" airport and which is primarily a "connecting" hub. Of the approx. 44,000 PHL movements for May 2007, WN had about 4030 - not a relatively significant contributor to "movements". Although, they intend to increase that number when more gates are available later this year.

What all of this appears to illustrate is how dependent CLT is on US, versus PHL and if US where to exit CLT, it would likely quickly revert to significantly less "movements" to primarily support it's relatively small O&D. Whereas PHL would likely stabilize much quicker, not only because of much larger O&D, but also because it currently supports many more airlines, which would likely expand their services. I do agree however, CLT is today an easier airport for connections. This may have a lot to do with both the obvious airport infrastructure and physical size differences and the complexity and busyness of processing many more originating passengers at PHL.

Quoting Vega (Reply 13):only 27% of passengers originated at or had CLT as their final destination. PHL's same statistic is 67%. Consequently, approximately 73% of all arriving/departing passengers at CLT never set foot outside of the airport.

Although I'm not sure what this means as far as the perception of one being 'busier'. You could actually argue that those connecting, actually see a bigger effect as far as delays and cancellations, but it's still PHL that's thought of as the most busy ... perhaps being #30 in line for takeoff at PHL is a good reason

Quoting Bond007 (Reply 14):Although I'm not sure what this means as far as the perception of one being 'busier'. You could actually argue that those connecting, actually see a bigger effect as far as delays and cancellations, but it's still PHL that's thought of as the most busy ... perhaps being #30 in line for takeoff at PHL is a good reason

First it was not my intent to denigrate CLT in any way - I very much like the airport. I think originating passengers tend to be located in and congregate in many more areas of the airport (TSA, ticketing, baggage check, etc.) making it appear very busy, which it usually is. Whereas, connecting passengers usually just move from gate to gate. Also, US has much more TO and Landing flexibility at CLT than it does at PHL because of competing airline traffic. I mean the tower doesn't have a lot of priority decisions to make when 70+% of a departure/arrival slot is US Airways (CLT).

Quoting Vega (Reply 16): I think originating passengers tend to be located in and congregate in many more areas of the airport (TSA, ticketing, baggage check, etc.) making it appear very busy, which it usually is. Whereas, connecting passengers usually just move from gate to gate

Yes, I actually wasn't thinking that ... good point. Although my concept of 'busy' meant more from an air traffic sense (since we were talking movements), rather than people.

Quoting Vega (Reply 16):I mean the tower doesn't have a lot of priority decisions to make when 70+% of a departure/arrival slot is US Airways (CLT).

Well, the tower shouldn't have many (or any) priority decisions to make even if there were 10 airlines.

Jimbo

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